Mentor

The Newsletter of Arisia, Incorporated -- Number 112, special November/December 2001 double issue

Notice

The next meeting will be at the convention. It is currently slotted for 3:00 PM in the Whitehill Room, but please check your Pocket Program

There will be a vote on a grant proposal at the next meeting. A copy of the grant proposal can be found on page 4 of this issue.

Minutes of the November Eboard Meeting

Date, Time, and Place

The executive board met on Tuesday, November 13, 2001, at the Ground Round in Chelmsford, MA. The meeting was called to order at 8:50 PM.

In Attendance

Brendan Quinn, Nicholas Shectman, Paul Selkirk, Skip Morris.

Arisia '01 Books

We will interpret Woody's email to the corporate list as a motion out of report, to turn the books over to the corporation. Skip has some stuff from Woody, which he will give to Phi.

Storage

We have signed a 15-month lease for our current space, effective through January 2003. It's paid through the end of this year. The rent is $640 a month. Since this is over $500, rent checks will require two signatures. It would be better to set up automatic payment through Fleet Bank.

The lease allows the landlord to rescind the lease with 60 days notice. We have an addendum to the lease that gives us an option for equivalent space in the building if the landlord exercises this right of rescission.

Grant Fund

We should put more money in the grant fund.

Corporate Dues

We found a number of corporate membership renewals in a stack of mail in storage. We apologize to all involved for failing to cash your checks in a timely manner, and for any interruption in Mentor.

There was one request for a dues waiver, due to financial hardship, which was granted.

Bulk Mail Account

Phi will put more money in the bulk mail account.

Long Range Planning Committee

Cris Shuldiner has agreed to head up the Long Range Planning Committee.

Minutes of the November Corporate Meeting

Date, Time, and Place

Sunday, November 18, 2001. MIT building 66, room 168 (the Usual Place). Called to order at 2:18 PM.

MOVED to accept Cris Shuldiner as head of the Long Range Planning Committee. Motion PASSED by acclamation.

Vice President's Report (Colette Fozard)

We filed the Change of Officers form with the state. We will file the Annual Report as soon as possible.

Grant Committee Report (Colette Fozard)

To correct last month's report, there are not 3 pending grants. When I opened the envelopes, there was the paper backup for the Gaylaxians grant, which we had already approved. There was one new grant proposal, which has been working its way through the process, which will be put up for approval next month. And there was one that was apparently received in March 2000. There were no notes on it, and I know from another comment that nothing was ever done on it. I don't know what happened, but at this point, I'm going to send a letter to them apologizing and asking them to re-apply if necessary.

MOVED to transfer $1000 from the General Fund to the Grand Fund, to cover the expected approval of a $2000 grant at the next meeting. Moved to AMEND by changing the amount to $2600. Amendment ACCEPTED as friendly. Motion PASSED on a voice vote.

Clerk's Report (Paul Selkirk)

Although members are usually admonished to sign in, the Clerk exercised his prerogative to simply note members present. All reports and motions should be submitted in writing or suffer the possibility of gross transcription errors. Major items of new business should be presented to the Eboard for consideration before presentation to the Membership. Dues for joining the Corporation are $20 at the beginning of this meeting and $18 after.

Treasurer's Report (Nicholas Shectman)

Arisia currently has $41,558.85 in bank accounts, $786.90 in vendor accounts, and $1,073.27 in accounts payable, for a net of $41,272.48. Of this, $15,000 is allocated to the snow fund, $8,436.56 is allocated to Arisia '02, and $3,777.39 is allocated to the grant fund after the transfer we just voted on, leaving $14,058.53 in the general fund.

I will not have a corporate budget to present until the December meeting. However, I anticipate corporate expenses exceeding income by $4000 in FY02 and $3000 a year after FY02 due to the increased cost of our storage space. If we found new storage space at the price we were paying for our old space and moved in January 2003, I would expect expenses to exceed income by $2000 in FY03, due at least partly to moving expenses and overlap of rent. I think that with the lead time we have for consolidating our equipment and finding new space, and given the effort the current E-board has already put into this task, finding new space for January '03 is a reasonable goal.

Of the $4000 FY02 overrun, about $1000 is already accounted for in the balances I list above. Thus, I suggest that we retain $5,000 in the general fund at this time. This leaves $9,058.53, which in my opinion may safely be considered over the next year in allocating money to other projects or to the Grant Fund.

MOVED to refer the lease to our lawyer, pending the membership attempting to overturn the eboard's signing of this lease if the lawyer returns an unfavorable decision. Motion TABLED to New Business.

I expect a motion from the A01 committee to turn over the A01 books to me; once this has happened I hope to be able to present a final financial report from A01 by the January meeting, and perhaps sooner.

One outstanding issue is that I do not have full information about who stayed in the hotel last year on the master bill, and whether they have paid. If you were on the master bill, please contact me.

Budget Committee Report (Nicholas Shectman)

No report.

Hotel Search Committee (Cris Shuldiner)

We have a proposal from the Park Plaza, which is basically our current contract with the '02 rates locked in for the next 3 years.

The Sheraton proposed a rate of $129, and doesn't have our weekend for the next 6 or 7 years. They would like us to take the first weekend in January. Their issue is that we're only taking half their guest rooms, but most of their function space. Even if we didn't take all their function space, we'd still need all their big function space, and they couldn't sell what was left to the sort of group that would take the other half of their guest rooms.

The Marriott proposed a room rate of $139, is unwilling to move on price, and doesn't have our weekend for all 3 years. Again, we don't use enough guest rooms. The last time we negotiated with them, they were willing to give us half their function space, including half their ballroom, which would have been interesting on Saturday night.

The Westin Copley does not have enough break-out rooms to be suitable for the sort of convention we are currently trying to run.

MOVED to direct the Eboard to pursue final negotiations with the Park Plaza. Motion PASSED by acclamation.

Arisia '01 Report (Elka Tovah Menkes)

MOVED to close the committee, and to turn all remaining business over to the corporation. Motion PASSED by acclamation.

Arisia '02 Report (Noel Rosenberg)

There is a concom meeting today at 4:00, and all are invited to attend.

The Arisia '02 conchair formally requested a list of division heads who are not members of the corporation.

Arisia '02 Treasury Report (Chris Amshey)

Not present.

Arisia '03 (Skip Morris)

No report.

Long Range Planning Committee (Cris Shuldiner)

Anyone who is interested in being on the Long-Range Planning Committee should talk to Brendan or Cris.

Budget Committee (Nicholas Shectman)

I will be putting together a corporate budget shortly. Anyone who wants to have input to that process should speak to me.

Old Business

None that anyone could recall.

New Business

MOVED to refer the lease to our lawyer, and refer her opinion back to the membership, pending a decision by the membership to override the eboard's signing of the lease. Moved to AMEND by changing "our lawyer" to "a qualified attorney"; amendment PASSED. Moved to AMEND by striking the "pending" clause; amendment PASSED. The amended motion PASSED on a hand vote.

Announcements

The next MCFI meeting will be Wednesday 11/7 at 7:30 at the NESFA clubhouse. See www.mcfi.org or www.nesfa.org for more information.

Meeting adjourned at 3:31 PM.

Minutes of the December Corporate Meeting

Date, Time, and Place

Sunday, November 18, 2001. MIT building 66, room 168 (the Usual Place). Called to order at 2:18 PM.

As directed by the corporation, Colette purchased two copies of the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) manual (one copy each for the corporate treasurer and current con treasurer).

The lease has not yet been run by the attorney that was recommended. We will do that in the next few weeks.

The contract with the Park Plaza should be finalized over the next week or so, and we expect to sign it before the con.

Vice President's Report (Colette Fozard)

As announced, we got the GAAP books. In addition, I got a general accounting guide for non-profits, which will probably be more directly useful to our non-accountant treasurers.

Grant Committee Report (Colette Fozard)

The only pending grant will be printed in this issue of Mentor, and will be voted on at the con.

There was a discussion about whether the requesting organization has a restrictive membership covenant. Colette will get a copy of the requesting organization's bylaws, and either submit them or summarize them at the next meeting.

Treasurer's Report (Nicholas Shectman)

Snow Fund: $15,000.00

Grant Fund: $ 3,777.39

Arisia '02: $ 8,347.73

General Fund: $14,473.79

Grand Total: $41,598.91

There has been some Arisia '02-related activity in accounts other than the Arisia '02 account, chiefly in the credit card account. There are also a few instances where money was deposited into the wrong account, or expenses were paid out of the wrong account. There was a starting balance in the account from its last incarnation as the Arisia '00 account, but Arisia '01 owes the account for comp memberships and pre-sales. Taking all of this into consideration, the corporation should have put about $3000 more into the Arisia '02 account than it did. I can do this electronically or by check; I have not heard back from Chris about his preferred method. In any case, it shouldn't present an immediate cash-flow problem.

Clerk's Report (Paul Selkirk)

I did not get Mentor out last month, and I apologize for that.

The state bounced our Change of Officers form because we didn't list our directors. While we don't technically have directors, we listed the 3 statutory officers, plus the vice-president, as directors, and we'll see if they take it this time.

Arisia '02 Report (Noel Rosenberg)

There is a concom meeting today at 4:00, and all are invited to attend.

Arisia '02 Treasury Report (Noel Rosenberg reporting)

We have money. If you need a check, Chris will be at the concom meeting.

Arisia '03 (Skip Morris)

As most of you know, I got laid off a few weeks ago, and I've been using the time productively to clean house. (Applause.) I have a job offer of a one-year contract, which will end 12/31/02, just in time for the con.

I like the way Noel has scheduled concom meetings to coincide with corporate meetings, and may extend that to div-head meetings as well, so we can blow a whole day on meetings.

Harry Turtledove has accepted as Writer Guest of Honor.

The invitation to the Fan Guest of Honor was delayed in the mail. I saw him recently, and gave him a copy of the invitation, and he's considering it.

My preferred Artist Guest of Honor is currently unemployed, and can't commit to anything that far ahead. I have some backups, but would rather wait until spring and try again.

Corporate Sysadmin (Cris Shuldiner)

No report; things are still running.

Long Range Planning Committee (Cris Shuldiner)

The LRP is soliciting members. Anyone interested should talk to Brendan after the meeting.

Database Committee (Paul Selkirk reporting)

No report; we haven't met recently.

Corporate Inventory Control (Carsten Turner)

Not present.

Old Business

None that anyone could recall.

New Business

TheFebruary meeting date is set for Tuesday, February 26, 2002, time and location TBA.

Meeting adjourned at 3:00 PM.

Arisia Grant Application

Submission date: September 5, 2001

Applicant Information:

Applicant name: The Lite Circle, Inc.

Address: P. O. Box 26162, Baltimore, Maryland 21210

Chairperson (name, title): David Kriebel, President

Executive Director (name, title): same

Project contact (name, title): Colette H. Fozard, Special Assistant to the President

Daytime telephone: (978) 973-6102

Fax: n/a

Summarize the mission of your organization:

The Lite Circle, Inc. is a literary magazine and small press. We publish a bi-monthly literary newspaper entitled "Lite" which is distributed free in the Baltimore area. The organization also publishes under the imprint Lite Circle Books, Inc.

Last fiscal year total income: $14,300

Last fiscal year total expenses: $14,300

Project information:

Title of project: "Through A Glass Darkly"

Summary of proposed project:

An anthology of mystery, dark fantasy and horror, to be published late this year with a pre-release held at the Millenium Philcon in September. An example of previous work published by Lite Circle Books ("Lower Than The Angels") is enclosed for reference.

Project start date: Submissions are being edited currently for this anthology.

Project end date: As noted above, publication is anticipated during the winter of 2001/2002.

Number of individuals directly participating in/benefiting from this project:

This book will be available for purchase by whoever finds an interest in the subject. An initial run of 3,000 books will be published.

Amount requested: $2000

Membership/Subscription Information

Subscription to Mentor of ARISIA is included with Corporate Membership to ARISIA, Incorporated. Membership runs from September 1st to August 31st and costs $24.00. Dues are pro-rated on a monthly basis for members joining during the year.